The Beggar.

The Beggar.

It was a dark cold night in December,

The wind blew hard and shrill,

A beggar boy came stumbling,

Down the cobblestone hill.

The lad was weary and hungry,

His old torn tattered clothes,

Could not keep out the weather,

And the young man almost froze.

He stumbled along the roadway,

Towards the sound of a singing choir,

And stopped at last at the entrance,

To a Christian worship hour.

He stood there full in the doorway,

And asked to be helped inside,

A man dressed in rich apparel,

Said ,no room for you I’m afraid.

The young man turned in horror,

When he heard this rejecting remark,

And stepped into the darkness,

To the barn that he’d just passed.

Laying there in the squalor,

He remembered there had been,

A time so many years ago,

On a night both dark and grim.

Where a son was born to Mary,

Or so his teacher said,

For his mind went back to better days,

And the church he went to as a lad.

They sent him to a stable,

For there was no room in the Inn,

And in that dark damp manger,

Christ was born to men.

He smiled to himself as he thought it,

My saviour came for me,

That day to Bethlehem’s village,

He came to set me free.

Christmas day came quickly,

The farmer came out to feed,

The animal’s kept safely in the barn,

And found the lad quite dead.

The villagers gathered round him,

The man at the church last night,

Who refused a place to this beggar,

Looked upon this dreadful sight.

He came for help to God’s children,

They failed to see his need,

But the God of grace and glory,

Heard the voice of this lad, indeed.

He came right down to where he was,

That mighty God of grace,

And said to the poor beggar lad,

In heaven you have a place.

Colin Williams